Gilgamesh

Today marks my 2nd anniversary at work. Coincidentally, I succumbed to illness, got myself a day of medical leave, and spent the rest of the day alternating between doing limited office work from home and reading Gilgamesh.

I had read another book by the same title earlier, but this one by Stephen Mitchell is quite different. Unlike Joan London's book (which is about the romance between an Australian girl and her archeologist beau who is fascinated with the story of Gilgamesh), Mitchell's book is about the epic story of Gilgamesh himself, the giant king of "great-walled Uruk" (current day Iraq) who was born 2/3 divine and 1/3 human. Accompanied by his best friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh sets off to slay the terrifying monster Humbaba which guards the Cedar Forest and later also thwarts the plot by the goddess Ishtar to punish him with the Bull of Heaven for spurning her advances. As the story develops, Enkidu slips away into the netherword, and overcome with fear and grief, Gilgamesh embarks on his long and difficult journey to the end of the world in his quest for immortality.

This is a poetic and fascinating story which was inscribed in cuneiform script on eleven clay tablets over 3,000 years ago. These tablets were only discovered in 1853 in the ruins in Nineveh, and the script was not deciphered and fully translated until much later. It is possibly the oldest surviving epic story in the world. Mitchell has done a masterful job of translating the script into modern English and making the tale come truly alive for his readers.

This is how his translation of the prologue of the story goes...

"He had seen everything, had experienced all emotions,
from exaltation to despair, had been granted a vision
into the great mystery, the secret places,
the primeval days before the Flood. He had journeyed
to the edge of the world and made his way back, exhausted
but whole. He had carved his trials on stone tablets,
had restored the holy Eanna Temple and the massive
wall of Uruk, which no city on earth can equal.
See how its ramparts gleam like copper in the sun.
Climb the stone staircase, more ancient than the mind can imagine,
approach the Eanna Temple, sacred to Ishtar,
a temple that no king has equalled in size or beauty,
walk on the wall of Uruk, follow its course
around the city, inspect its mighty foundations,
examine its brickwork, how masterfully it is built,
observe the land it encloses: the palm trees, the gardens,
the orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the shops
and marketplaces, the houses, the public squares.
Find the cornerstone and under it the copper box
that is marked with his name. Unlock it. Open the lid.
Take out the tablet of lapis lazuli. Read
how Gilgamesh suffered all and accomplished all."